The Problem

Even today, in Himachal Pradesh, huge amounts of problems are occurring affecting children, women and men. In order to fix these problems, we are using our programs to help educate and change what is currently happening. India is ranked 130/144 in the Gender Inequality Index.

12.5% of Girls killed in Sex Selective Abortions*

In India, girls are seen as lesser people and having a girl is, many times, seen as another mouth to feed. In many cases they're seen as a person to be raised and married off and in many poor households, they aren't worth being raised. So, many households have an abortion if the child is a women. When a girl is concieved in India, she's more likely to be killed by her own family because she is "worthless" and is the second most likely cause of death for women.

*This statistic is not counting abortions that are not sex selective

Gender Inequality

The gender gap in Himachal Pradesh is huge. Here, men and women are seen as different people with different capabilities of knowledge. Although the difference does exist in sports and other activities, women are seen as less useful and are seen as a burden due to India being a patriarchal society. For families where money is a problem, they may only educate the male child as the female is a burden that is another mouth to feed. These stereotypes cause other problems like the wage gap in which people with identical qualifications get paid more because they are a man. This happens because people believe that women are less smart and will do less leading to less wage despite their identical working habits. The wage gap increases with more and more education.

This also is illustrated in high courts and in government workers in which women make up only eight percent of the judges and 21 percent of the workers respectively. The literacy rate also demonstrates this. The women in these socities are taught they are lesser, told not to go out, not to look at people in the eye and told to work at home and never dream due to generations of tradition dictating their way of life. In order to ensure a girl gets married, she is taught to be quiet, passive and not to talk loudly. Education is necessary in order to switch these ways of thinking and these deep rooted ideologies.

30%

Gender pay gap difference in people with advanced degrees

77%

men in the workforce

75%

Women literate

90%

Men literate

"[My parents] said things like girls can't play outside. They can't walk on the roads alone. In the beginning they even said I couldn't go to school alone and to take my little brother with me."

- mamta, a village girl

Lack of Health Education

70%

Women unaware of reproductive tract infection

40%

Women Unaware About HIV

15%

Showed Signs of Reproductive Tract Infection

37%

Children that have not RECEIVED full VACCINATION against diseases

The health structures of family, society and state have ignored women for a long time. Gender indoctrination discourages women from paying attention to health needs of their body and forces them to remain silent about many of their gynecological or sexuality related problems reinforcing culture of silence. The image of good women is one who is confined to four walls, quiet, submissive and sacrificing. Because of the social stigma around reproduction and STIs, many women aren't educated diseases that exist, problems that they cause and how to avoid them. Due to this, a high percentage of them show signs of diseases like reproductive tract infection or have't even got proper tests done for major diseases such as HIV.

The issue with having such little education about these issues is that people don't know how to avoid them, the risks involved with having these diseases, how to treat them and how to avoid passing it to a significant other or other loved ones. Even outside social stigma, one major reason for lack of education is lack of money. This problem causes many children to not be vaccinated against diseases. This causes more problems like spread of diseases such as measles and other preventable, cured diseases.

Changing Climate

A changing climate is bad news for India, a primarily farming country. In recent years, farmers have begun reporting concerns over poor soil quality, changes in vegetables resistance to disease, and most recently, the lack of adaptability in the face of increasingly erratic weather patterns.

Abuse and Crimes Against Women

In Himachal Pradesh many crimes against women go unreported due to pressure from the family and shame that comes from reporting sexual assault and other crimes. If someone is sexually assaulted they may be seen as dirty which causes them to not want to reveal what happened. People may also not believe them or assume it is their fault, all of which help pressure women to stay silent. So, when we began our organization we thought there were no cases of domestic assault and other crimes. However, in the early years of our community mobilization work brought to the light cases of incest, child rape, harassment by brother in-laws and of course a lot of cases of men remarrying, throwing their wives out of the home, taking away male children from the custody of the mother etc.

However, in the early years of our community mobilization work brought to the light cases of incest, child rape, harassment by brother in-laws and of course a lot ofcases of men remarrying, throwing their wives out of the home, taking away male children from the custody of the mother etc.Despite time passing, these crimes have not gotten better at all. Although education cannot stop the crimes from happening, it can educate people on how serious rape is and allow people to realize that is wrong and should not occur under the status quo.

“I used to dream of being educated and standing on my own feet but since I couldn’t achieve it I wish that my children are able to achieve it”.

Sunita, 42 years old

How We Can Help

These problems are difficult but not unchangeable. To create lasting change, education is necessary. In order to do this, we have started four programs which all work together to change society in this area. If you would like to help make a change, click the button below.